I don't know what primary schools are like in the UK today but I remember them to be fairly calm, regulated, well organised affairs. This is a major difference. I find the teaching environment in SK to be exciting and stimulating if a little chaotic. The teachers are so very creative. In my school, this is a wonderful experience because there are so many games, role plays and tools for teaching English.
As a child learning French/German, I don't remember doing any games but if I had then I might not have dreaded foreign language classes above all others.
Teaching English seems to be quite high on the SK agenda, in order to support international relationships for the future benefit of the country, thus funding is pretty good. For example, most kids go to a private English academy in the evenings after school finishes but there are many families for whom this is just too expensive. For these students, the government pays foreign teachers like me to set up free twice weekly after school classes as well as English camps - and the children want to come. My class sizes have doubled in the last month alone. I do 8 after school classes a week but Khalid does 22!
On the other hand, this drive to succeed can also team with the creativity of the English teacher to install a range of nasty little punishments. I hasten to add that this is something that I have never experienced in my school, however, there are so many stories amongst my group of friends that I couldn't possibly list them all. Some of the most common punishments are forced public dancing (humiliation), squats/sit ups/push ups (physical strain) or a painful reminder (pinching, slapping, canes, paddles etc). Whilst I'm not strictly against physical punishment for bad behaviour, I think that these things go too far on 4-11 year old kids who seem to do little more than talk too loudly or forget their textbook.
Nevertheless, if I were to employ such methods (without getting fired) I imagine that I wouldn't have those students who sometimes choose to eat their worksheets instead of completing them.
